President Donald Trump issued a harsh warning to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after the leader told local students that the United States is being humiliated by Iran.
It is the latest in a growing spat between the two leaders after Merz told pupils at Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg earlier this week that the U.S. is “being humiliated by the Iranian leadership” amid the Strait of Hormuz conflict.
“The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social.
Trump’s reference to “immigration and energy” policy as a problem in Germany echoes the positions he laid out at his United Nations speech last year, in which he called green energy and mass migration a “double-tailed monster” destroying the continent.
The warning follows a previous statement made Wednesday in which he conveyed that the U.S. is “studying and reviewing” a possible “reduction of troops” based in Germany.
Without explicitly mentioning Merz or his statements about American humiliation, he said a “determination” on the pulling of servicemen from German bases will be “made over the next short period of time.”
He also complained on Tuesday that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” — adding that the chancellor “doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
Merz claims that his relationship with the White House “remains good.”
TRUMP WEIGHING US TROOPS REDUCTION IN GERMANY AFTER MERZ’S IRAN WAR CRITICISM
“I simply had doubts from the start about what was begun with the war in Iran,” the chancellor said Wednesday. “That is why I have made that clear.”
Contingent upon the U.S. and Iran ceasing all hostilities and establishing peace, Germany is willing to offer minesweepers to help clear the passage and restore order to the international shipping of the region.